Salt

Mar 9:49 (ESV) 49 For everyone will be salted with fire.

2Ki 2:19-23 (ESV) 19 Now the men of the city said to Elisha, "Behold, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord sees, but the water is bad, and the land is unfruitful."
20 He said, "Bring me a new bowl, and put salt in it." So they brought it to him.
21 Then he went to the spring of water and threw salt in it and said, "Thus says the LORD, I have healed this water; from now on neither death nor miscarriage shall come from it."
22 So the water has been healed to this day, according to the word that Elisha spoke.
23 He went up from there to Bethel...

The day I prayed with some friends against the masonic lodge (a place of pagan worship perched at the headwaters to the burgh of Alva) I had an argument with Liz. She took the kids away in the car while I was at a prayer meeting that evening without telling me. I came home to an empty house with no explanation. That was chalked up to post natal depression. Aaron turns 3 on 12 May. Since then, She has taken the children away two times without warning and each time the reasons are more elaborate and not open to discussion. The family uses their resources to help Elizabeth financially and emotionally, to their credit, I suppose, but based on only one side of any story.

I never saw the possible connection between the problems and the prayer until later. Recently God brought the episode to my remembrance upon reading the scriptures above. I became convinced that this was 'a thing' and planned to hike up the Alva Glen and pray at the head waters above the masonic lodge and salt the Alva Burn (stream). I later learned that a woman in our church (whose husband was a mason) passed away suddenly the day before. She is the last person connected to freemasonry that I know of; though there are two more ladies whose sons are masons and insist that it is a Christian-friendly organization.

Gulping down the doubt as to whether or not this was a merely emotional and dreamy notion, I hiked up to the head of the Alva Burn today with a solid Christian friend and we prayed for the Frasers; and the village; and added salt to the water from a tiny cup that was only ever used to take communion at the garden tomb in Jerusalem.

Lifting up the Name of Jesus and His Word and praying for each other and repenting of sin we have asked the Lord for healing.

Will you please join us in prayer regarding the prophetic act?

Prayer requests

We will have a prayer meeting on Saturday night 2nd April at 7pm GMT (2pm NY, 11am Cali.)
People from 24 churches in the county will gather to pray for Alva Baptist Church and the village specifically and for Clackmannanshire county and the nation of Scotland.

Will you please join us by stopping right now and praying for us here in Alva

The prayer points of the evening will be:

1. The Fraser family
2. The State of Prayer in the Church
3. Reaching Out to the Community
4. Ministry to Families in the Church
5. Major Outreaches:

• Easter 24 April
  
• Vacation Bible School in July
  
• Back to Church Sunday: 25th September (http://www.backtochurch.co.uk)
  
• A Missionary visit planned in September through a Theological Seminary in North Carolina; and
  
• the October Evangelistic Outreach planned with Impact World Tours, a ministry of Youth with a Mission (YWAM)

Thank you for continuing to support us in prayer and by keeping in contact with us through reading this blog. I am sure you are busy.

Still Standing

It's been a while.

Elizabeth is still separated from me with the children, living in a flat in Stirling.
I have stopped arguing and trying to convince her with words.
She accepts my help and acknowledges gestures of love with reminders that none of her actions are to be interpreted as progress toward reconciliation.

I continue to meet with prayer partners, mentors and the leadership of our fellowship for accountability and wise counsel. I have considered stepping down and discussed it with friends in ministry. (and am confident that this is not what God wants) I am meeting with the family pastor of the church Elizabeth occasionally attends with the boys, with whose wife Liz has become friendly. I am doing my best to remain transparent and open to God's leading.

Yesterday as Aaron hugged me, he reached out toward Elizabeth who cooperated as he pulled mummy and daddy together and Liz let me hug her. It was very special.

We are all praying for the family at our church and the boys regularly pray for our family to be together again. I believe God has purpose for this time that we will only see later.

I hope you will read this and consider how you may fire-proof your marriage.

Have You Considered My Servant...?

Today a student from the local Bible College preached on Job.
Daniel proposed that the whole story hinges on Job 1:8
"The LORD said to Satan, 'Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil.'"

The main thrust was this:
it isn't a question of whether or not Job has faith in God,
Or if he will be found faithful in the midst of suffering;
but that the story is told to show that God has faith in Job!

Job 1:21-22 ...Blessed be the name of the LORD."
Through all this Job did not sin nor did he blame God.

A new friend commented on the blog recently.
I dont really know this person, but I gather they know the family here and have befriended Elizabeth. This person acknowledged the difficult circumstances we face and suggested that I might want to reconsider remarks about Elizabeth and family.

I honestly had not considered how the remarks would hinder reconciliation.
Or how my characterization of others' actions might heap injury on top of 'offence' .

May I say, I felt so alone and unheard that I was pleading to anyone who would read this blog to give a listen and reach out with encouragement or perspective. I hadn't imagined Liz or other family as the audience of this blog. Though I knew it was entirely possible, I had given up trying to talk to people who refused or were somehow unable to respond. Or who were so one-sided in their interpretations of events and issues that they were unable to empathize. Instead I had gotten mute or inarticulate sympathy for 'how much this must/was going to hurt...'

But perhaps I was unfaithful to my spouse for appealing to you, the FirstLove blogosphere; 'making my case' here with a one-sided portrayal of events. Though, in fairness, I did appeal to Liz to participate in writing during this time.

I really did feel I was stating the issues as I saw them, in order for you to pray. But in retrospect, I see it has not been very easy to distill facts from the intense poetry riddled with emotion and judgement. (And why involve you anyway?)

The point was always this:
Those who agreed to pray for us have visited this blog to see what is going on in Scotland. When in crisis, I turned to our prayer partners. When I felt alone and threatened, I turned to friends. I didnt mean to turn on those who I felt had betrayed me over here, by talking about them without recourse.

In the end, God has had me alone before Him and done some work. As He has with Liz. Perhaps He could have done it all with less mess than I have made by sharing it. But then again, my clumsy, desperate, humility and your prayers may have changed the course of events. Or maybe the witness and testimony of this process will help somebody. (It still isn't over)

And you should know that the overwhelming response has been assurance that you were praying for Liz and I; and that God is faithful and He will work all things together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose; and that there is tremendous fidelity toward Elizabeth in this audience.

If I have offended you by sharing too much information, please forgive me. If you are offended on Elizabeth's account, please forgive me. I never meant to slander or injure. I always sought to address my concerns to the person who was subject of any grievance before coming here and venting the pressure onto the page. But sadly the lack of redress drove me to despair. I have been weak and anxious and you have had to endure this from a distance. If it is sin, Jesus died for these sins, I hope you will also forgive me. I will try to be more self-aware of my language and commit to apprehend poetry and conform it to the prose intended.

Thank you for your patience and understanding while I freaked-out and bled onto this space. I know I am not blameless; I know I am forgiven and in this, righteous.
I wish I had been more like Job in Chapter 1.
(Even if I started out like this, it didn't last)
I now feel a bit more like Job in Chapter 40: "I lay my hand on my mouth."

Please pray for our healthy marriage and united family,
which is a picture of Christ and the church.

Thank you for your prayers.
Thank you for your comments.
Thank you for your friendship (it's more than a FaceBook affiliation)

Striving to stand firm,
David

If It Seems Slow, Wait for It...

I was considering quitting today.

It's just not right, what's happening to me:

• A spouse who is very upset with me and not seeking to forgive and reconcile;
• children who are starting to show signs of being affected by this;
• in-laws who are not speaking openly to me about it;
• local ministers who are too busy with the bulk of their ministries to help;
• being the pastor, myself, of another very s-l-o-w-l-y growing ministry which seems to bury more than it baptises...;
• My second new year's eve alone;
• and assorted discouraging advice about 'moving on'
  

an absolute junk day, this!

...then this text comes on my phone:
"Record the vision And inscribe it on tablets, That the one who reads it may run."

that's it. No explanation. very 'New Year' sort of a verse, right?
but I know the next verse almost by heart:

"For the vision is yet for the appointed time; It hastens toward the goal and it will not fail. Though it tarries, wait for it; For it will certainly come, it will not delay."

If you had a picture of the Fraser's on your fridge to remind you to pray for us, you had this scripture quoted out of Habakkuk 2:3

and when I looked it up, the verse that follows helped me too:
"Behold, as for the proud one, His soul is not right within him;
But the righteous will live by his faith."

How proud I am. How proven baseless and arrogant, that pride.
How NOT right are things right now,
while I cry 'victim' because of the spouse who cries 'victim'?

I was trying to believe more about myself because I am in Christ.
But I need to believe more about Christ, because I am myself.
And I need to believe more about Christ, because He lives in Liz.

And God reached me in the depths of depression and despair,
with the words He gave over four years ago.
And I will not give up today.
And it's not a junk day.
God don't make junk!

As my friend has said:
These are days of grace. Grace that brings the nature of God into this day.

Please keep praying for us.

Seeking to be the change I would see in others,
David

Christmas Message

"'...my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed,' says the LORD, who has compassion on you." Isaiah 54:10

God set aside God-ness and squeeezed into a people-suit; to walk among us and make known the basic promise of the kingdom; and declare forgiveness according to the mercy & righteousness of God.

The victory cry started with a baby's little lamb cry, and ended with a simple prayer on the cross. Infinite God was fastened to flesh, only to later be ripped from it.

On Christmas, the birth of this child has value because the manner of His death brings life to the friends of God. His birth is the begining of re-birth for fallen man.

To the glory of God

The Faithfulness of God

After 35+ years of service, Jim Taylor died in the midst of the local fellowship that he had come to call his home church. The body of Christ ministered to he and his wife Helen in his moment of crisis.

The picture is sketched along-side the tragedy of death. No one here gets out alive!
But life withstood the threat of darkness.

The 16-year old boy with his arm around Helen and the dear friend holding her hand. Those of us praying, those of us asking questions. Someone made tea. Elaine was performing CPR on Jim until the paramedics arrived. They worked faithfully. Helen knows the presence of God in her reflection on those last moments of Jim's life. Great light!

God arranged the last weeks of Jim's life to afford him visits with family, the opportunity to say some things to select people; blessing and reconciliation. His daughter and her entire family had visited spontaneously, the day before he died, with a new camera to capture shots of Jim in seeming good health.

Nobody knew Jim's last days had come. Almost nobody. The One, True God, Creator and Giver of Life, Our Lord knows and does all things well. He is faithful.